Weston Farmhouse

WESTON FARMHOUSE

Manor house, now farmhouse. The building dates from the late medieval period, with a north-east wing added probably in the late 16th century. A porch was constructed in 1672, contemporary with a stair turret. The roof may have been renewed in the mid-19th century, and the fenestration was largely replaced at the same period. The building was extensively restored in the late 1940s and again in the late 1970s.

The exterior is constructed of roughly squared and coursed local stone with Ham stone dressings. The roof is covered with Bridgwater patent tiles and features boxed eaves with coped verges. Stone chimney stacks stand at the left gable and to the left of the porch, while a brick stack rises at the right gable end and in the lower independently roofed addition to the right.

The building is two storeys with an unlit attic, arranged as 3:1:1 bays with an addition to the right. A three-storey gabled porch occupies the second bay to the right. First-floor windows are set well below the eaves and consist of three-light wooden casements under hoodmoulds. The ground floor features a four-light window to the right under a hoodmould. A 20th-century door has been inserted into a window opening, with its hoodmould remaining. To the left of the porch are a four-light Ham stone ovolo-moulded mullioned window and a renewed four-light stone mullioned window to the right.

The porch has a patterned slate-hung gable end and bears a date stone. Evidence of a blocked window remains below. A first-floor leaded two-light window is present, above an ashlar doorcase below a moulded string. The moulded arch features a keystone and pilasters. A 20th-century glazed door has been inserted, alongside a fine moulded inner doorway with ornate stops of sunburst and turret design, with a surviving 17th-century door.

The rear elevation rises to three storeys with mostly 20th-century fenestration of irregular pattern. A small stone window occupies the ground floor of the three-storey stair turret. The principal feature of interest is the random rubble two-storey north-east wing. Its east front displays a seven-light ovolo-moulded Ham stone mullioned window at first-floor level, with a similar nine-light window below.

A datestone of 1583 appears on the west front, said to have been reset from the gable end. If this date is correct for the north-west wing, it would represent one of the earliest examples of ovolo-moulded mullions in the area.

The interior has been extensively altered in the 20th century. The ground floor of the north-west wing retains a fine moulded six-panel compartment ceiling with decorative plasterwork panels depicting heraldic animals and birds. The coat of arms of the Bonner family has been identified in one panel. Above is a barrel-vaulted bedroom ceiling featuring a scroll pattern of mulberry and oak leaf design.

A plank and muntin screen with a shaped head opening separates the former through passage from the former kitchen, which now serves as the dining room but retains evidence that stairs formerly stood in the south-east corner. A good depressed ogee-head doorframe with ornate stops provides access to the stair turret. At first floor, remains of a pair of shaped-head doorframes survive at the head of the stairs. Some 17th-century doors remain, and the attic space still contains 17th-century features including doors. A row of gabled dormers was probably added when the roof was raised in the late 17th century but was removed in the 19th century.

The plan has been internally much altered. Originally probably an open hall house, it was ceiled to create three cells with a cross passage facing south. The north-east wing, porch, and north-west stair turret were added, and the roof was raised. A cottage addition was built at the east gable end. In the 20th century, the screens passage was removed, a staircase was inserted, the former kitchen became the dining room, and the hall was converted to a kitchen cut by an inserted through corridor to the stair turret. An inner room now serves as a farm office.

The building stands on the site of a deserted village and represents a very interesting example of a manor house.